Well... This isn't Much Fun

So, June's here and with it the long awaited appointment for the repair to to right shoulder rotator cuff. Specifically to repair the attachment of a torn tendon to the top of the...erm, whatever, and shave off a couple of bone spurs that were rubbing on a tendon. All via the wonders of keyhole surgery. Apparently all went well but it still requires the application of a cocktail of painkillers once the anaesthetics wore off, and I'm permanently stuck with the right arm in a sling 24/7.

After the original injury at the fag end of last year it took about four months to regain a full range of movement in the shoulder. Even then it felt weak and likely to let me down if pressed hard. My log shows a total of five excursions in any sort of boat since then and it doesn't look like improving much until the end of the year. Right now, two weeks after the op, the joint is almost immovable and without anything like a reasonable range of movement.  The Physio isn't very happy with the progress  on his first encounter with my joint and has awarded me another two weeks in a sling and instructions not to do anything with it except a couple of very minor exercises and to keep taking the pills. There goes 2016.

I mentioned previously doing a bit of jogging to try to keep the fitness up and the weight down while I tried to sort out the shoulder. That's been only partly successful insofar as I've taken up the local Parkrun 5k jogs on Saturday mornings. I had been walking and jogging as an adjunct to paddling, but right now it's my only form of concentrated exercise. By providing a timed run over a fixed distance it can at least give an indication of aerobic fitness. On the Saturday before the Op I went back to The Bushy Park run and put in a new PB for that course, which was what I had been aiming for. It was very gratifying. It's just unfortunate that any fitness I garner from the minor amount of training that I do is rapidly lost and goes back to square one if the regular runs are not continued. I suspect that it's going to be at least a month yet before I can dispense with the sling and get a short starter run in.